Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators Review

Hipsters will be quite familiar with Cheap Monday’s Swedish jeans, but what about Teenage Engineering? The cooperation between these two brands announced at the NAMM Show 2015 is certainly unusual.

The result is three extremely minimalist synthesizers for your pocket, affectionately christened Pocket Operator.

With an equally playful but more purist approach as the Teenage Engineering OP-1, the PO-12 Rhythm, the PO-14 Sub and the PO-16 Factory appeared as probably the smallest groove trio in the world!

The Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators end up being more of a hipster gadget.

It doesn’t get much more minimal than this: The cigarette-box-sized devices consist of just a circuit board and a few more components.

Long live minimalism! But don’t worry, real housings are still sold separately – just like the covers for an IKEA sofa.

The literal link to Sweden’s number one export and the TE team’s previous employer has been established – and now let’s review it!

Rhythm, Sub and Factory

The Pocket Operator series by Teenage Engineering comprises three devices and was developed in cooperation with the fashion producer Cheap Monday.

In terms of contemporary concepts such as reduction and minimalism, the three dwarfs are definitely on trend.

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Speaking of style, the three POs (short forms can be funny sometimes) are quite crisp … er – excuse me! … diversified.

What all three have in common is a clothing store-style hanger, like the kind you usually find on sock packages, for example.

It can be broken off if desired, for example to insert the pocket operators into the optionally available sleeves.

Teenage Engineering PO-14 Sub, PO-16 Factory und PO-12 Rhythm

All three synthesizers offer a sequencer including parameter locks as well as integrated “punch-in” effects.

The PO-12 RHYTHM is – as the name suggests – a drum synthesizer. It also exclusively offers so-called “step re-triggers”, which could also be called note repeat.

The PO-14 SUB, on the other hand, is a bass synthesizer that offers bass-oriented play styles, similar to an arpeggiator. The PO-16 FACTORY, on the other hand, is a lead synthesizer that is monophonic to begin with.

Due to its unique selling point “Arpeggio and Chord Play” styles, polyphonic playing is nevertheless possible within certain limits. So far the rough info.

A circuit board with buttons, display and chips – that’s all!

All three Pocket Operators have a very puristic design and consist of only one circuit board with 23 soldered-on buttons, two pots each and a display.

Each of the three little pocket operators is colored a bit differently and blessed with a different, crazy display content: A submarine, a construction site and a sewing machine operated by tiny humans.

Weird visualizations are a tradition at Teenage Engineering – the OP-1, for example, shows an effect through the digestive tract of a cow.

By the way, behind the display sits – well hidden and well protected – the “Silabs EFM32 Gecko MCU” processor.

There’s even room for a small speaker from “knowles”.

And while we are on the subject of names: The DAC comes from the likewise established manufacturer Cirrus Logic.

Various connections, also for the soldering iron

On the rear, we find two 3.5 mm jack sockets.

The right one serves as audio/headphone output and sync-out, while the left one is used as sync-in and audio-in.

Different sync modes are available, so mono audio can flow through the stereo line in addition to the click track.

The battery compartment for two AAA batteries can also be found on the back.

A small bracket allows the units to stand securely at an angle. Furthermore, there are two soldering points on the back, to which you can solder your own speakers.

Between the jack sockets, talented tinkerers will also find twelve more soldering points, which are intended as JTAG programming ports and should make the hacker’s heart beat faster.

The wire bracket allows the Pocket Operators to be set up at an angle.

The back with batteries, jack sockets and soldering points for hobbyists

Integrated sequencer and alarm clock

All three operators feature an integrated 16-step sequencer with 16 patterns, as well as the ability to chain up to 16 patterns.

Each of the little boxes is also capable of parameter locks, which means that different settings can be programmed per step.

Per step, the two available parameters per sound can be changed and pitch and length can be set.

Furthermore, the little things also serve as a stylish clock including alarm clock with “freaky beats”.

This makes sense, since the POs can unfortunately not be switched off, but only switch to a standby mode.

You might as well use it as an alarm clock and let fresh beats get you out of bed.

The standby mode is supposed to last up to two years with one battery charge. In normal operation, the batteries last about 70 hours.

Real synths and real effects

All PO devices basically rely on synthesis.

However, the Rhythm also has a few samples at the start, just like the reduced drum parts of the Sub and Factory Synths.

The modulation possibilities of the sounds turn out to be rather meager with two knobs for the two most important parameters.

The synths also offer different engines per sound, with FM, subtractive, wavetable and physical modeling synthesis forms available.

There are also 16 punch-in effects for drastic changes including delay, bit crusher and filter, as well as an auto compressor and hardware limiter.

Small differences in the playing aids

The PO-16 Factory and PO-12 Rhythm feature so-called punch-in play styles, which provide a way to create simple melodies.

Starting with a few notes, more notes are simply “punched in”, which of course pleasantly minimizes the need to program many notes into the calculators.

The bass synth PO-14 Sub comes with 16 bass-oriented styles, while the melody supplier Factory offers 16 “arpeggio and chord play styles”.

The Rhythm, on the other hand, is capable of performing note repeats. How the whole thing sounds in the end, however, is best heard in the practical part!

The three stylish synths come in at least as fashionable packaging, including a small instruction leaflet. These should be read, because the layout of the sound calculators is not really self-explanatory.

However, the “manual” is rather to be understood as a quick-start guide for self-experimentation, because some basic questions about operation or limitations in use are not addressed.

For example, it took me longer than average to figure out whether the sounds were editable or not.

Simply turning the knobs didn’t work in most cases, which I couldn’t quite understand at first.

The solution: You have to hold Write to change sound parameters – but I didn’t find this hint in the manual.

If you have understood the principle at some point, you can still work with the little things quite well. What always bothered me, however, was the fact that the 16 buttons for the steps and patterns do not stand out further from the rest of the buttons and thus do not separate themselves visually enough. But let’s listen and look at the Pocket Operators together first.

PO-14 Sub

The PO-14 Sub offers 15 different bass sounds and an additional drum track with 16 samples and is thus an independent device with which you can already do a lot solo.

The fact that there are different synthesis forms behind the various sounds is interesting, but also relatively irrelevant, because only a maximum of two parameters can be edited anyway, of which almost always one is responsible for the filter or the filter envelope.

The sound selection is not bad, but not particularly surprising and innovative either.

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PO-16 Factory

The same applies in principle to the melody synth PO-16 Factory.

However, it offers the more interesting sounds, which have a quirky and sometimes (in a good way) a bit cheap lo-fi character.

They sound as quirky as the little box looks, too.

Thanks to the Chord Play Styles, you are able to create polyphonic sounds as well.

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PO-12 Rhythm

The drum machine PO-12 Rhythm is also quite interesting and naturally offers the most extensive drums.

In contrast to the purely sample-based drums of PO-14 and PO-16, synthesizer drums are also on board here.

Accordingly, the sounds can also be edited with two parameters. For the sake of simplicity, let’s go through all the sounds and their parameters.

The step multipliers (“note repeats per step”) are funny, but it really gets crazy with the punch-in effects, which can be changed per step just like any parameter.

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However, you are somewhat limited by the fact that the effects only work globally and cannot be applied to individual sounds. Speaking of compromises: Mutes, solos and mixers are unfortunately missing, which then limits the practical use considerably.

With 16 steps length, of course, no too sophisticated grooves are possible, but the patterns can be chained. For my part, however, I found it most productive to simply jam and record.

The result is then easiest to edit in the DAW, especially since not all stunts with the effects are necessarily predictable.

While I consistently like all of the raw, hard sounds, I wouldn’t want to go so far as to use these sounds as main sounds in a production. For a wacky loop, however, the little box is definitely enough as an idea slinger.

The PO-12 Rhythm is responsible for the drums.

The PO-14 sub takes care of the bass.

PO-16 Factory has the most interesting sounds.

Extensive sync modes

Thanks to different sync modes, all three Pocket Operators can be brought into sync with each other and with other devices. Even the communication with my Volcas worked fine – but without start and stop commands.

What I do not like so much

That the little music dwarfs start up by themselves when you just throw them in your pocket.

An additional off switch would have been quite useful, especially since the batteries are quite difficult to remove. When I recently had to open my Gear case at the airport, I was eyed suspiciously – what was that flashing between my cables and making strange sounds (“Bomb Squad Alert”)?

It’s also a pity that the boxes unfortunately don’t remember the last note value set, so that you have to crank through all note values again per step, which I found a bit slowing down.

It is also annoying that you can’t recognize every set step if the sound corresponding to this LED is triggered quickly. But you have to get used to that.

By the way, there are no mutes and solos either, so you have to make do with empty patterns. Yes, and MIDI is not available either!

Optional extras

As with a Benz, Teenage Engineering has the same rule: Every extra costs – and a lot!

The matching silicone sleeves called CA-12, CA-14 and CA-16 are available for just under 40 USD each.

However, the “Break Away Hanger” has to be broken off the board. Matching display protection foils are also traded and cost 15 USD for the three-pack.In relation to the approx.

70 USD that the actual synthesizers cost, it becomes clear that the focus of the Pocket Operators is ultimately more on design and hipness than on functionality.

The animated submarines and cranes on the displays are really eye-catching, so I can highly recommend the POs as a gag gift for the hipster who has everything anyway.

Musically, they are ultimately a rather questionable purchase.

Conclusion

The Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator PO-12 Rhythm, PO-14 Sub and PO-16 are fun little synthesizers that complement each other beautifully.

They sound pretty good, even if they give off a bit of a digital lo-fi aesthetic.

They offer enough sonic flexibility to invite you to play around, but are ultimately limited in their intended use.

I like the reduced design and the minimalist dictation, however, this sound toy is ultimately too compact, too playful and turns out too unintuitive for me in practice – and I say that as a convinced Korg Volca user.

However, the three little dwarfs fit perfectly on hipster desks, between vintage action figures and beard wax.

PROS:

• Fun factor
• Good sound
• Very compact
• Pattern chaining
• Division of tasks (drums, bass, melody)

CONS:

• No MIDI
• Expensive accessories
• Too design-infatuated
• Manual too short
• Difficult to use with one hand
• No mutes, solos and mixer on PO-12
• Limited sound settings

Features PO-12 Rhythm:

• Drum Machine
• 16-step pattern sequencer
• Swing
• 16 sounds
• 16 patterns
• 16 pattern chains
• 16 global effects
• Parameter Lock (2 parameters per sound)
• Line input and output 3.5 mm jack
• Power supply via 2 standard AAA batteries
• LC-Display
• Built-in speaker
• Integrated alarm clock
• Sync

Features PO-14 Sub:

• Bass synthesizer
• 16 step sequencer
• 15 sounds plus micro drum machine incl. 16 samples
• Pitch and note length per step
• 16 effects
• 16 patterns
• Parameter Lock (2 parameters per sound)
• Line in and out 3.5 mm jack
• Power supply via 2 standard AAA batteries
• LC-Display
• Built-in loudspeaker
• Integrated alarm clock
• Sync

Features PO-16 Factory:

• Lead Synthesizer
• 16-step pattern sequencer
• 15 sounds plus Micro Drum Machine incl. 16 samples
• Pitch and note length per step
• 16 effects
• 16 patterns
• Parameter Lock (2 parameters per sound)
• Line in and out 3.5 mm jack
• Power supply via 2 standard micro batteries
• LC-Display
• Built-in loudspeaker
• Integrated alarm clock
• Sync

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